BioWare Officially Names Secret Project “Dylan”

For several years, gaming giant BioWare has been working on an unknown IP that it code-named “Dylan”. Casey Hudson, executive producer of the BioWare fan and financial hit series Mass Effect, named it as such because they “wanted to make the Bob Dylan of video games—one that would be referenced for years to come.” Well now, Bioware has released a trailer for the new game, and it will be titled “Anthem”.

And it looks slick, too. “Anthem” will be set in a science fiction, futuristic, possibly post-apocalyptic universe, with some tonal similarities to Mass Effect. But they very much diverge from there. Flashes of an overgrown wall, a rough, dark marketplace, and an impressive suite of techno-armor worn by the player, all dominate the sequence, with hard, blaring music and sound. An alien creature stalks in the jungle. The narrator drives home the theme of darkness and danger, with mentions of both the wall and the armor as their last defense against what lurks outside.

There will also be some differences in how the game is structured. BioWare, and parent company Electronic Arts, appear to want to compete on a social gaming platform similar to Destiny from Activision. This is a situation more about cooperative play between real people on a network, rather than the individualized story lines for which Mass Effect and Dragon Age (BioWare’s other popular property) were more known.

The idea is to create a network of friends with whom you go on missions. This draws in more players, especially among younger people. It is a trick genre to break into as many failed MMORPG’s might prove. This is also out of Bioware’s usual realm of games, as deep, intertwined story lines are harder to craft in this sort of gaming platform.

Check out the the first game play trailer here. It shows quite a bit more than the first teaser did, especially about how your armor works and the type of world in which you live.